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courage

Being able to roll out of bed and stumble over to class in whatever I had on the night before was an amazing luxury of living on campus. Who could resist an extra hour of sleep in exchange for not caring about what you looked like? It was convenient, and it was how I spent my freshman year, but it wasn’t me.

Growing up, I have always put a heavy focus on my appearance, even if that meant waking up an hour early to do my hair and makeup. Especially in high school where the hallways were runways, and fellow classmates were the judges. It was important to me to express myself through my clothing, and I would never leave home without pin straight hair and my favorite lipgloss.

Fast forward to the first week of freshman year. I started classes with the same mindset, but as the Florida humidity and the late nights studying caught up to me, I decided it just wasn’t worth it to waste makeup on a 50-minute lecture hall. So thus the oversized t-shirts and Nike shorts made their first-ever appearance on my body in a classroom setting.

Yet the comfortability and convenience didn’t make me feel that good. Dressing down knocked my confidence down a peg because I didn’t feel like myself in these clothes. Sure, it was nice to sleep a little bit longer, but I was no longer expressing myself through fashion.

Now that I live off campus, I have been able to dress better. It’s a strange correlation, but hear me out. Each morning, I get up and get ready to spend 4-8 hours on campus. In my mind, I can validate putting together a nice outfit since I’ll be spending so much time out of my apartment, rather than the 50-minute lecture I rolled out of bed for last year. By waking up and physically leaving my home to make a 5-minute commute to campus, I already feel like I’m doing something with my day, and therefore am able to be more put together.

Since I am living off campus, I do have to wake up about 2 hours before my classes start in order to get ready and get there, but in that time I am able to start my day off right. Dressing that confidence up with my favorite skirt or shade of lipstick makes all the difference in the world. I’m a huge proponent of the look-good-feel-good mantra, and this allows me to do so each and every day.

I’m not going out of my way to impress anyone, but instead, I’m spending this extra time to please myself. The power of wearing a cute outfit is strong enough to shatter all of my stress, and the confidence I am able to wear lights up my whole day. The extra half an hour of sleep is nice when you want a lazy day, but feeling put together and confidence gives me the power to conquer the world.